How Is This Not Racist?

NOTE: I am closing the comments in this thread due to length, and extra stress on the servers. Please go up to the full reprinting to continue your discussions.

UPDATE/CORRECTION?: Thanks to reader LDP doing some more digging, we now believe that Jay-Z and Young Jeezy exhibited their crude behavior at a concert Monday night called “Jay-Z’s ‘Concert On The Eve Of Change’.” See photos. Lovely. (He performed his apparently revered new hit song, “History,” which I’ve added at the end of this post.) Get this: He charged big bucks for tickets, which scalpers quickly scooped up. Via sohh.com:

The “affordable” tickets reportedly sold-out in a matter of minutes.

Only the highest online bidders will have the chance to see the hip-hop superstar honor the new president-elect. The cheapest seats for the show, located in the balcony of Washington’s Warner Theatre, cost between $195 and $375 depending on the view. Those disappeared from Ticketmaster in less than five minutes after going on sale at 10 a.m. Friday. (CNN)

In light of LisaB’s great article earlier today, “The ‘racist’ angle, going forward,” I have to ask how this disgusting, utterly vulgar trash talking by “Young Jeezy” and “Jay-Z” at one of the Tuesday night inaugural balls (!) — featured in a segment on The O’Reilly Factor — is not also racist. Racism, contrary to the high-minded assumptions of the elite mainstream media and academia, is not a one-way street.

As I researched this story, I found more and more must-read items, and this story goes clear back to Obama’s behavior during the Democratic primaries. So, let me distill all below into a few succinct key points:

     1) During the Democratic primaries, candidate Barack Obama evoked the motions and style of Jay-Z in order to mock and demean Hillary Clinton. Obama’s gestures — unfamiliar to us who aren’t into hip-hop but instantly understood by all who are into that “music” — were summed up in a great article published at No Quarter, “Obama Invokes Jay-Z: ‘Stab the Ladies…Middle Finga To The Law’.”

     2) Jay-Z is regarded as an “A-list” celebrity, even by the so-called MSM.

     3) Not only that, Jay-Z was awarded the privilege and protection of an official police escort this week in Washington, D.C. (although we don’t know who picked up the tab for that).

     4) Jay-Z attends the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball — which means he was invited (!) — with his pal Young Jeezy, and the two tear up the place with a racist rant that essentially flaunts black power because they have a black president.

     5) During the Neighborhood Ball, Jay-Z and Young Jeezy pitch a nasty, foul-mouthed fit that they’re not asked to perform at the Ball.

     6) We learn that Jay-Z, along with Arcade Fire, has been chosen by the top administrators of the Obama campaign staff to headline a special concert for the hardest-working Obama campaign staff in D.C.

     7) We therefore conclude that, while on Inaugural Day, the Obamas danced to the more elegant Beyonce, they are still promoting the filth and misogyny of Jay-Z and other “performers” of his ilk, just as they did during the campaign.
Above all else, what Jay-Z and Young Jeezy sell is misogyny, sexism, and the objectification of women, as well as dangerous hatred of all other races except blacks. Ironically, sadly, those sales are made to a lot of white, Asian and Hispanic kids.

Here are some sample lyrics from Jay-Z and Young Jeezy are below (brace yourselves). There are more lyrics like this:

How We Ball In The Club, I Know You Hate It
Mommy Dancing On The Floor, All Like She Naked
When She Lay Down With You, I Know She Fake It
All The Girls Give It To Me, I Ain’t Gotta Take It …

Then there are these “lyrics” from Jay-Z’s song that inspired Obama’s gesture, captured on YouTube (seen at the end of this story), towards Hillary Clinton:

If you feelin’ like a pimp nigga, go and brush your shoulders off
Ladies is pimps too, go and brush your shoulders off
Niggaz is crazy baby, don’t forget that boy told you
Get, that, dirt off your shoulder

Now for all the details of the above summary. First, this segment was aired on Bill O’Reilly’s show Wednesday night:

Bill O’Reilly didn’t have the whole story. Not by a long shot. First, there are these remarks by YouTube channel owner (Mark1 Williams, a black man) whose video is below:

and jayz had the nerve to act like his feelings were hurt when he wasn’t asked to perform. these are grown men for god’s sake. *shaking my head*

So Mark Williams believes that Jay-Z behaved like this at the ball Tuesday night. You’ve now seen our update above. We just aren’t sure which night it was. But the point that Williams made was that Jay-Z was acting out furiously because he wasn’t invited to perform at the inaugural ball? Jay-Z is an arrogant racist and a misogynistic blowhard afflicted with stunted emotional growth.

BELOW is the un-censored video of Jay-Z’s antics at the inaugural ball Tuesday night, posted by YouTube channel owner Mark1 Williams. STRONG WARNING: The language is very raw, so prepare yourself before you click and, if you’re sensitive to such vulgarity, skip it:

Not that you’re likely to want to see more, but if you do, here’s a link to more such videos from Tuesday night and from those two, uh, performers.

NOW GET THIS. While researching this story, I discovered that Jay-Z has no reason to pout for not getting to perform at the inaugural balls since he is performing, along with Arcade Fire, at an exclusive private party for key Obama campaign staffers as a “thank you” from the campaign. Bill O’Reilly didn’t have this either, even though it’s published by the NYT reporter who spewed bile on Hillary Clinton, Adam Nagourney, at the New York Times Caucus blog as well as at PitchforkMedia and other media outlets. PitchforkMedia praises “Jay and the Arcade Fire [who] both campaigned hard for Obama. … [T]his should be an incredible show, and it seems a fair bet those staffers will hear that “My President is Black” remix at some point.

Oh wow. Don’t we hope. That “My President is Black” remix? It features not only Jay-Z but his partner in filth, “Young Jeezy.”

Isn’t it great that our new president is treating his hardest-working campaign staffers to these sleazeballs?

Do you recall the great article we posted on Jay-Z by Laluchasigue? It’s this article: “Obama Invokes Jay-Z: ‘Stab the Ladies…Middle Finga To The Law’.”

Here’s the history behind Jay-Z that O’Reilly left out of his program Wednesday night:

Obama mimicked Jay-Z during the campaign to connect with hip young black voters and — and! — to denigrate Secretary Hillary Clinton, along with, let’s face it, all women since these two are clearly misogynistic. Shockingly, Obama was willing to stoop to Jay-Z’s level to get votes. So, actually, what took place at the Tuesday inaugural ball is in part Obama’s own fault because he legitimized these foul-mouthed lousy performers by mimicking them, especially in rallies dominated by black voters. Wrote Laluchasigue:

Obama’s invocation of Jay-Z’s defiant “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” battle anthem during the same speech adds evidence to the claim that he gave Hillary the finger.

Obama’s gesture prompted a mash-up video that made the Jay-Z/Obama connection explicit. Ari Melber, the other Obamabot named Ari at The Nation, posted the video on The Nation’s website, noting, “Obama really is a Jay-Z fan, too. When asked which hip hop artists he likes in a recent interview, he said, ‘lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Jay-Z — this new American Gangster album.’”

Sigh. Yeah. That American Gangster album is da bomb. Great taste, Mr. President. Just great. And what a fine example to the nation’s youth.

Dennis Miller is correct, in the O’Reilly segment, about the two young men being unable to “ratchet down the hate.”

But let’s face it. If those two didn’t have white people to hate, and women to trash, what in the hell would they have left to rap about?

And I LOVE what Miller says about the term “ho’s” versus “hose.” (That’s another strong theme in this kind of “music” [I use the term reluctantly] in that it is also misogynistic and constantly regards women as objects whose sole function is for the gratification of male sexual pleasure.)

Quite frankly, their “music” is nothing more than crudely dysfunctional emotional ejaculation and has nothing to do with the deepest needs of all psychologically healthy human beings, which are to connect emotionally as well as physically.

This kind of language, and what it conveys, has no place in our society. Racism can, and does, affect ALL races.. And the speech of Jay-Z and Young Jeezy is racist against whites, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Asian Americans.

It makes me sick to my stomach that young people are spending money — most likely their parents’ hard-earned money — to make rich brats out of these thugs. It repulses me that young people are reveling in the music put out by disgusting hate-filled people like these two. Bill O’Reilly’s minimization of their impact is woefully wrong. The truth is that far too many young people are listening to music like this.

Can we have a little class, please. Is that too much to ask? A little more Beyonce and no more Jay-Z?

Naturally, the vast majority of blacks yesterday rejoiced in the inauguration of the nation’s first black president. But there were a few who used the occasion to preach hate and racism against anyone who’s not black like them.

President Obama must do all he can to set these young thugs straight, and to discourage young people from imitating their behavior and adopting their sickening attitudes.

Perhaps President Obama can begin by not emulating them in order to win a presidential election.

I finished the above story but it kept bugging me. So I searched the news for more reports.

This is by an LA Times reporter for its arts section, “The Culture Monster,” who spotted Jay-Z in the morning:

I walked to the southeastern edge of the Capitol this morning with my sister and a friend. They held blue tickets for the swearing-in ceremony; mine was green. We parted at the corner of Independence Avenue and South Capitol Street. And while I progressed rather quickly through a battery of security checkpoints and found my seat around 9 a.m. — well before a parade of celebrities including Jay-Z (wearing a gigantic, Yeltsin-esque fur hat), Beyonce and Maria Shriver swept past me toward their seats nearby — they stood motionless in a massive block of people that went nowhere. They ultimately gave up after standing in line for four hours.

Here’s another not-too-deep report, “Leonardo DiCaprio Joins Beyonce, Jay-Z, and More at Neighborhood Inaugural Ball.”

And last, this from the San Francisco Examiner:

How the mighty have fallen – Jennifer Lopez locked out of Jay-Z show at Obama Inaugural

[...]

Real A-listers like Jay-Z, who was getting around town with a police escort, and Alicia Keys had been warned to make it to balls and other celebrations up to four hours early to make it past the snarled traffic and tight security. Even Leonardo DiCaprio and Toby “Spiderman” Maquire were there early. …

Got that? Jay-Z is a “real A-lister” who gets a “police escort” — and who’s paying for that? The taxpayers of Washington, D.C.? And who ordered that he merited a police escort? I’d like to know who arranged that. Was it an Obama staffer? And why?

My jaw has dropped so many times while writing this article that I can’t find it anymore.

So a misogynistic, foul-mouthed creep like Jay-Z gets A-list treatment, a police escort, and a lead in the entertainment for Obama’s most prized campaign staffers? And he served as a role model for Obama to capture the black vote?

What world am I living in?

The one thing I do know is that it’s not my world or my country. It’s not my family’s world. It’s not my mother’s world (she’d be shocked beyond belief by this article if she were alive to read it).

Down is up.

Class is trash.

And I’m glad that I chose to stay away from that campaign and that candidate, if those are the celebrities and the “talent” he chooses to reward.

I’ll stick with the one who should be president.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Now there’s real class.

But remember this video. That crowd got exactly what Obama was doing:

That gesture comes from these lyrics:

[Chorus: Jay-Z]
If you feelin’ like a pimp nigga, go and brush your shoulders off
Ladies is pimps too, go and brush your shoulders off
Niggaz is crazy baby, don’t forget that boy told you
Get, that, dirt off your shoulder

[Verse One]
I probably owe it to y’all, probably to be locked by the force
Tryin to hustle some things, that go with the Porsche
Feelin no remorse, feelin like my hand was forced
Middle finger to the law, nigga grippin ma balls
Stab the ladies they love me, from the bleachers they screamin
All the ballers is bouncin, they like the way I be leanin
All the rappers be hatin, off the track that I’m makin
But all the hustlers they love it just to see one of us make it
Came from the bottom the bottom, to the Top of the Pops
Nigga London, Japan and I’m straight off the block
Like a running back, get it man, I’m straight off the block
I can run it back nigga cause I’m straight with the Roc
=

Just remember, as if I have to repeat it, from above:

“Obama really is a Jay-Z fan, too. When asked which hip hop artists he likes in a recent interview, he said, ‘lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Jay-Z — this new American Gangster album.’”

What an example to the nation’s children our new president is.

UPDATE on “Jay-Z’s ‘Concert On The Eve Of Change’.” (H/T to LDP, who did some more digging, and found out that Jay-Z probably performed those antics at the Monday night concert he held. See photos. Lovely. (He performed his apparently revered new hit song, “History,” which I’ve added at the end of this post.) See sohh.com for more background on the concert.

NOW HERE ARE SOME of the lyrics to his lauded song, “History” — I note that “defeat” is a woman, but of course:

Known for his clever usage of metaphors, Jay compares Obama’s victory to his yearning and frustration over a woman.

“Until she visit me/I’ll be stuck with her sister her name is defeat/she gives me agony/I‘m
stuck in this routine/whole new different day/same old thing/all I got
is dreams/nobody else could see/nobody else believes/nobody else but
me/Where are you victory/I need you desperately/not just for the
moment, to make history.”

The song, which debuted on Angie Martinez’s Hot 97 radio show in New York City, comes after months of Jay’s personal endorsement of Obama at concerts, rallies with fans throughout the nation and exclusive Obama benefit shows. 

Read all here, including more on songs by others on Obama’s victory.